Gisele Bündchen Reveals Her and Tom Brady's Son Benjamin Faced Bullying
Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady have dealt with a situation that every parent dreads. During her interview with Vanity Fair, Bundchen revealed that her son, Benjamin, whom she shares with her ex-husband, Brady, has experienced bullying. The model explained that her son would encounter problems in Boston because he didn't necessarily follow in his father's footsteps.
Bundchen explained that Benjamin enjoys "non-ball" sports such as surfing and skiing. Unfortunately, because his interests haven't exactly lined up with his famous father's, he dealt with bullying from other kids when the family was still in Boston. As Bundchen's Vanity Fair profile noted, the "athletic pressure of being Brady's son led to bullying in Boston after one particular baseball game." Elsewhere in the piece, Bundchen spoke about the reason why she wants her son and daughter, Vivian, to learn jiu-jitsu alongside her. She said that she once asked herself, "how can I help them to have a person that has that level of integrity and can teach them values?"
As PEOPLE noted, Brady has also spoken out about Benjamin's lack of interest in following in his football footsteps. While speaking with Men's Health in 2019, he said that his two sons couldn't be more different (Brady shares an older son, Jack, with his ex, Bridget Moynihan). Brady told the publication that Jack "loves sports" and that he "wants to try hard, and he never wants to disappoint his dad." In that way, he said that Jack is very similar to him, as he had the same relationship with his own father growing up.
"I'd wake up early on the weekends to do stuff with my dad. That's why I didn't party a lot. If Dad wanted to golf, I wanted to be there with him. And if I ever missed those things, it would crush me," he added. Unlike Jack, Benjamin "likes different things." Brady first assumed that Benjamin would be similar to his older brother, but he had to learn that his son was his own person. He explained, "And Gisele kept saying to me, 'Would you effing understand that your son is different?' It was hard for me. I was like, 'What do you mean? He's a boy; he should do all these things that I do.'"
After coming to the conclusion that Benjamin likes different things than him, he embraced the activities that his son likes to do. In the end, it was the best move for their father-son relationship, as he said, "And it's great because now I just have to go do what he wants to do. When we do that, we have the best time. He's like, 'OMG, Dad, you're so funny.' He loves joking, and I joke back."